Up next: The Saints travel to face the Houston Texans Sunday August 24 while the Raiders return home to Oakland to take on the Chicago Bears next Saturday night.

Series History: The Saints have met the Raiders five times in preseason play with New Orleans holding a 3-2 edge. The teams have also met 12 times in the regular season with the Saints leading the series 6-5-1.

Super Bowl Broadcast Crew: Former Raiders Coach Tom Flores and former Raiders QB Jim Plunkett serve as color analyst for the Raiders Radio Network. Flores was coach and Plunkett was QB when Oakland came to the Superdome to face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV.

The underdog Raiders handled the Eagles 27-10 behind Plunkett’s three touchdown passes. Plunkett was named the MVP of Super Bowl XV as the Raiders won their second Super Bowl.

In the Raiders first preseason game, Oakland ran 62 offensive plays for 325 yards. Oakland had 209 yards passing and 116 yard rushing in their 19-17 win over Dallas. Eddy Carmona made a 23 yard field goal with 8:11 left in the game to give Oakland the two point advantage.

Raiders QB Matt Flynn completed 4-of-5 passes for 37 yards with a QB rating of 97.5. Back-up QB Terrelle Pryor was 6-of-10 for 88 yards with one interception with a QB rating of 49.2. Pryor also rushed for 31 yards averaging 10.3 yards per attempt on three carries.

Oakland QB Matt McGloin had the best night of the Raiders QB’s as he was 4-of-7 for 78 yards with a TD and finished with a rating of 135.7. The Raiders Defense limited the Cowboys to 291 yards of total offense in the win over Dallas.

From the Saints point of view

1st Team Defense needs to get off to a better start: Sure we want to see the Saints 1st team defense perform better against the Raiders 1st team offense compared to the way the Black and Gold did against KC. New Orleans allowed 14 plays 80 yards and a TD to the first team Chiefs Offense. However the Saints Defense played well overall.

In their last 11 offensive possessions the Chiefs ran 44 plays for a total of just 135 yards with six points scored.

1st team offense looking to score a TD: Speaking of first team units, the Saints 1st team offense has yet to score a TD. The Saints have not scored in either the Black and Gold Scrimmage and the Saints first team offense failed to score a TD against the Chiefs.

Nothing special about those special teams: Of the three phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams, the Saints by far looked bad covering kicks last week against the Chiefs. New Orleans needs to show some improvement this week.
KC had three kick returns for 136 yards to go along with six punt returns for 106 yards. The Chiefs totaled 242 yards in returns for an average of 27 yards per return. The Saints will be tested this week.

Oakland did well returning kicks in their win over Dallas. The Raiders had a total of five returns on kicks and punts combined for 118 yards. That’s an average of 23.6 yards per return.

What they are saying about the game

Saints QB #9 Drew Brees on if he is frustrated that the Saints Offense did not score a TD against the Chiefs. And the Saints did not score a TD against the Black and Gold 1st team defense in the scrimmage.

“No, if you are just talking about in the scrimmage, we had one opportunity. In the game, we had the two drives. There is a lot that encompasses a practice, you have third down offense, you have red zone, and you have move the ball. You have different situations. I think we are progressing and progressing the way we want. We have to continue to improve no doubt.”

Saints RB #23 Pierre Thomas on if he will play against the Raiders

“Definitely, I am preparing for it. I am ready to play on Friday. I am ready to hit another team besides my own players.”

Saints CB #40 Chris Carr onwhat is the approach on special teams for the Raiders?

“Everybody is in the same predicament. You can’t use that as an excuse. But the ultimate goal is to get ready for the regular season games. If you are a coaching staff, you want to feel like when you go into that first game, you have a confident kickoff and punt team. It’s all about getting better. By the time the fourth preseason game comes along, if you aren’t playing well by that point, then there is going to be something wrong. But I think it’s really important not to panic and not get overconfident. We (can) go out there against Oakland this Friday and play very well, but that doesn’t mean anything. You have to get better because once things go along, people are going to get more experience here and we are going to watch a lot of film and if you aren’t on your game, you are going to get beat. It’s about being consistent and doing things consistently well. That was just one game and we want to treat that as an anomaly and hopefully that’s not the norm and we do a lot better.”